Trans Attracted Men Revisited Panel

The trans attracted men panel that was rudely interrupted at Creating Change will be happening today on YouTube at 12 noon Eastern.

So if you wish to see the discussion on trans attracted men, moderated by Tona Brown and Bryanna Jenkins, and featuring Antwan Fields, Troy Kennedy and Jonathan Hayden, you can click on the link to hear that discussion

Sen. Franken Calls Out GOP SCOTUS Obstruction

Antonin Scalia's body wasn't even cold before Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that he and his GOP colleagues wouldn't even meet with much less confirm any appointee that President Obama anoints as his choice to replace (in) Justice Scalia.

Sen. Al Franken  (D-MN)  put him and the GOP on blast for failing to do their duty, and here's the video of that Senate floor speech.

Enjoy.

Diamond Stylz Talks About BTAC 2016

Diamond talks about BTAC 2016 happening from April 25-May 1, and looking forward to seeing her and my trans brothers and trans sisters.

And congrats on eight years of YouTube video excellence!

Sophina DeJesus' Amazing Gymnastics Floor Routine

The world of gymnastics is continuing to see women of color put their creative, athletic and artistic stamps on it recently.

The latest example of that is UCLA senior gymnast Sophina DeJesus unleashing an amazing routing during a Pac-12 competition against the two time defending Pac-12 gymnastic champions Utah.

Roland Martin Drops The Mic On Stacey Dash

Stacey Dash has sadly had the wash set and GOP cranial rinse to become a FOX fembot, and has been cooning it up lately on FOX Noise.

She was recently unleashed by her paymasters to say some monumentally stupid and hypocritical comments about BET, Black Hollywood and Black media in general that paid her bills for decades before she started taking pundit checks from FOX Noise.

Well you know my ascot wearing Houston homeboy Roland Martin wasn't having it, and delivered this recent smackdown on her azz.

Enjoy.

Happy 87th Birthday, Dr King!

Today is what would have been the 87th birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the greatest Americans our people have ever produced, as Tavis Smiley has said..

While our conservative friends like to focus on the Dr King pre-August 1963, the reality is that Dr King had a lot more profound things to say about America beyond the  March on Washington  'I Have A Dream' speech.

Much of what he wrote and said not only during his all too brief life, and especially post August 1963 is just as fresh and relevant in 2016 America as it was at the time when he uttered those words.

And yes, he is a sterling example of speaking truth to power.

This is an excerpt from the 1967 'Beyond Vietnam' speech that he gave at New York's Riverside Church one year before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.   I think it is so appropriate that we read and heed those words in this critical election year for our country.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin—we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay a hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.

Happy birthday Dr. King.  America is a much better nation because of you, and had you been blessed with longevity, would be an even better nation.   That's up to us to make that dream of yours a reality.

Shane's Lack Of Trans Men Of Color Representation Video

Last week I challenged Houston area trans men to step up their leadership game and do their part to help 'ejumacate' our people on trams issues.   As I said in that post, "The education of our people about trans issues can't solely be a trans feminine responsibility."

The best people poised to do the educating about trans masculinity are trans men themselves, and that can't be done with y'all either being ignored by the media or trans men sitting on the sidelines refusing to get involved while simultaneously complaining about the lack of coverage on their issues.

Closed mouths of marginalized people that don't speak their minds don't get fed, and also don't get the media attention they deserve.

One of my goals in this TransGriot 10th anniversary year is to also feature the voices of other trans women of color and my trans brothers.

Love this video from Shane Ortega discussing the marginalization and of marginalization of trans men of color..

Jazzmun Speaks About Transphobia

One of the people I finally had the pleasure of meeting in 2015 was Jazzmun.

You have seen this California native on television and the silver screen in numerous roles in movies like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Punks, and the documentary In Full Bloom.  I had a wonderful time getting to know our amazing sister earlier this year in Chicago and I hope 2016 is the year she gets the opportunity to really show Hollywood and the world what she can do as an actor.

This is her speaking on the issue of transphobia, and it's something that we need to leave behind in 2015 as we move to a new year this Friday.

Donahue Show: Trans People and Their Families

Another Donahue trans show, circa 1987 in which he interviews a trans woman and her supportive sister.

Enjoy the video

1965 Baldwin vs. Buckley Debate

"It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them.  Until the moment comes when we, the Americans, are able to accept the fact that my ancestors are both black and white, that on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity, that we need each other, that I am not a ward of America, I am not an object of missionary charity, I am one of the people who built this country-- until this moment comes there is scarcely any hope for the American dream.  If the people are denied participation in it, by their very presence they will wreck it.  And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West."
-James Baldwin, 1965 Cambridge University debate    

50 years ago writer James Baldwin  accepted an invitation from Cambridge University's Cambridge Union Society to debate William F. Buckley, Jr., the father of modern conservatism and the young founder of the conservative leaning National Review magazine.

The debate topic was 'Has the American Dream Been Achieved At The Expense Of The American Negro?' 

Baldwin in addition to being a prominent writer, was one of the intellectual voices of the Civil Rights Movement.  Buckley was had voiced his opposition to desegregation in the pages of the National Review in 1961 but was a few years from his status as 'The Father of Modern Conservatism'.

Both got their opportunity to argue their points, and when it was over the Cambridge Union Society members voted on the proposition.   Baldwin trounced Buckley 540-160.  

Enjoy this debate, because sadly, many of the points Baldwin makes are still valid in 2015 and explain much of the racial animus we are currently dealing with.

FTM Fitness World Body Building Competition Video

I talked about the FTM Fitness World Conference in Atlanta in a previous post, and in addition to this Al Jazeera America story about the transmasculine body building world, while searching for video I stumbled across this CNN video with interviews by Neo Sandja and Shawn Stinson about this trans masculine bodybuilding competition.



I hope I get the opportunity to go to the 3rd annual FTM Fitness World event next year in the ATL, see it in person and write about it for the blog

Donahue Show: Tula

During its 26 years of syndication from 1970-1996, The Phil Donahue Show was considered the gold standard when it came to talk shows.  

The wonderful thing about Donahue was that because he was a journalist and newscaster before he quit to start the show, when he covered trans issues and people, he did so in an intelligent and  respectful way for the time period.

Here's video of the show in which he interviewed trans pioneer, author, advocate, Bond Girl and model Caroline Cossey.

You're A Mean One, Mr. Trump

Just in time for the holidays, stumbled across this wicked parody on College Humor of You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch with remixed lyrics slamming the Trumpenfuhrer that has gone viral..

Gee, I wonder why?

Enjoy!

Serena's 2015 SI Sportsperson Of The Year Acceptance Speech

Y'all know I'm ride or die for Serena Williams, and was pleased to hear that she was named the 2015 Sportsperson of the Year.   She became the first woman to win the prestigious award by herself and not as part of a team since 1983.

And then Serena's racist haters unleashed their vitriol, with some of those racist haters being on the LA Times payroll.  I had my say about it along with other social commentators.

But here's Serena in a dropping the mic moment as she accepted the award and dropped some truth nukes while doing so.

Just an FYI haters, the Australian Open starts January 18   Hope that's the start of a Golden Slam for one of my fave tennis players and the Greatest Of All Time, if not her generation.